The use of solar radiated heat as an efficient and environmentally acceptable energy source is becoming more widespread as improvements are made in means to capture the sun's heat and to store and utilize the captured solar heat.
Perhaps the most widely used form of solar collectors is a rectangular panel and a great many types of panels have been suggested, some of which have been used with varying degrees of success.
I have invented a solar heat collecting panel whose outline may be rectangular, square or some other shape but which can be easily constructed of readily available components and yet will produce and store solar generated temperatures of up to 200.degree. F. above the ambient temperature at the collecting panel.
Briefly put, the solar heat collecting panel has three stacked compartments bounded by a frame which is preferably made of a reflecting metal such as aluminum or an insulating material such as a plastic or wood or combinations thereof. Two similar parallel and spaced apart sheets of clear plastic material constitute the upper and lower boundaries of the uppermost compartment. The two sheets may be contour-profiled or flat.
The middle compartment is formed by placing a third similarly dimensioned sheet parallel to and spaced beneath the sheet forming the lower boundary of the uppermost compartment.
A metallic heat absorption sheet is located between the upper and lower sheets of the middle compartment. The upper surface of the heat absorption sheet is covered with a preferably flat black coating and the sheet is preferably dimensioned to leave a small gap between its outer edges and the panel's frame.
The lowermost or bottom compartment is formed by placing a fourth similarly dimensioned sheet parallel to and spaced beneath the sheet forming the lower boundary of the middle compartment. The sheets forming the three compartments and the heat absorption sheet are held in spaced relation to each other preferably by a series of elongated bolts and nuts and a suitable number of cylindrical spacers which are located at spaced intervals across the entire panel.
In operation, my panel is positioned so the upper sheet of the panel's uppermost compartment lies perpendicular to the sun's rays. The sun's rays pass through the clear plastic sheets of the uppermost compartment, slightly warming the uppermost compartment, and them heating the black coated surface of the metallic heat absorption sheet which efficiently stores the solar heat transmitted by the sun's rays. The air trapped in the uppermost and lowermost compartments of the panel act as heat dams which minimize conductive and convective heat loss from the middle compartment. It is thus possible to raise the temperature in the middle compartment to as much as 200.degree. F. above the ambient temperature around the panel under optimal sun radiation.
A number of methods may be employed to transfer the heat generated within the middle compartment for use outside the panel for heating the air in a home or the water in a swimming pool or a central heat exchanger, to mention only three of the many uses of the heat generated by my solar heat collecting panel.
The one preferred method pumps air at ambient temperature through an elongated slot in one end of the frame opening into the middle compartment without disturbing the heat dams in the upper and lower compartments. The air pumped into the middle compartment through the slot in one end of the panel is heated to or near the temperature of the middle compartment and then exhausted out of a similar slot in the opposite end of the panel and the heated air moved to a remote location for use as a direct source of heat.
Another method places a length of flexible tubing onto the upper black coated surface of the metallic heat absorption sheet. Heat absorbing liquid or gas is pumped through the tubing to absorb heat from the middle compartment and transport that heat for use outside the heat collecting panel.